Middlesex

Unabridged
Author: Jeffrey Eugenides
Narrator: Kristoffer Tabori
Genres: Fiction, Literature
Publisher: Audio Renaissance
Date: January 2004
Length: 21 hours
Ratings:
Formats:

Overview

In the spring of 1974, Calliope Stephanides, a student at a girls' school, Grosse Pointe, MI, finds herself drawn to a chain-smoking, strawberry-blonde classmate with a gift for acting. The passion that furtively develops between them - along with Callie's failure to develop - leads Callie to suspect that she is not like other girls. The explanation for this shocking state of affairs takes us out of suburbia - back before the Detroit race riots of 1967, before the rise of the Motor City, to 1922, when the Turks sacked Smyrna and Callie's grandparents fled for their lives, back to a tiny village in Asia Minor where two lovers, and one rare genetic mutation, set in motion the metamorphosis that will turn Callie into a being both mythical and perfectly real: a hermaphrodite.
Sprawling across eight decades - and one unusually awkward adolescence - Jeffrey Eugenide's long-awaited second novel is a grand, utterly original fable of crossed bloodlines, the intricacies of gender, and the deep, untidy promptings of desire.
It marks the fulfillment of a huge talent, named one of America's best young novelists by both Granta and "The New Yorker.

Reviews (29)

middlesex

Written by Elizabeth Manuge from South Ohio RR 1, NS on June 10th, 2008

  • Book Rating: 5/5

i liked this book. it was long with a complete history of the characters from their beginnings in Greece. to start with i thought the reader was excellent, his voice made all the characters believable. i felt i might have known some of them. the problems facing callie are very big and frightening, but somehow this character has strength and aplomb to handle her life. her bi sexuality is explained, (grandparents are brother and sister) and so the reader has the whole picture. you feel callie has accepted this and so also have her family and its safe to continue with her life. an interesting story, well written and well read.

Excellent Book

Written by Regan Waller on May 29th, 2008

  • Book Rating: 5/5

The character development and plot line in this book are excellent. It was great fun to listen to and I was always wondering what would happen next. Truly a novel book.

The Best!

Written by Rachel Secore from Dallas, TX on May 12th, 2008

  • Book Rating: 5/5

This book is by far the best audiobook I have ever listened to. The reader did a fantastic job, and the book won an Audie Award. This book is a must!

Humerous

Written by Anonymous from Friendswood, TX on April 29th, 2008

  • Book Rating: 4/5

I wasn't sure about this because of the length, but I am enjoying so far. Funny, smart, descriptive and very enjoyable.

Middleses

Written by Kathleen Linn on March 21st, 2008

  • Book Rating: 5/5

Do not stop until you can listen to this wonderful book. I would be driving down the highway just amazed at the amazing reader. The way the author writes is simply stunning. So far the best book I have ever read via audio.

Middlesex

Written by Rebecca De Roche on December 3rd, 2007

  • Book Rating: 5/5

I have been receiving audio books for years now, and this is by far the best one I have listened to. It is an epic tale that takes you through cultures, and generations. The narrator reads it as if he wrote it--he is absolutely brilliant. I agree with the reader who said that the 17 discs are not enough!

Wonderful!!

Written by Sandra on September 24th, 2007

  • Book Rating: 5/5

I loved every second of this book. It was 17 cd's long, but it was far too short. I highly recommend this book to everyone.

Middlesex

Written by Anonymous on August 24th, 2007

  • Book Rating: 1/5

I got through the 2nd CD and I felt it just wasn't worth my time to continue listening to it. Narration of the book is superb but the book itself just didn't grab my attention. Too many characters and a horribly drawn out and ridiculous story line. This book had great reveiws -- I'm still at a loss to figure out why!

Enlightening & Engrossing

Written by Lois from Kentwood, MI on August 4th, 2007

  • Book Rating: 5/5

This book was not only entertaining, but enlightening. The author did a wonderful job of keeping me totally engrossed in the story. I loved the actor reading the book too! The imperfections and struggles of the various members of the family were so expertly described that you feel like you know this family in the flesh and understand why it took so long for them to discover the truth.

Middlesex

Written by Flo on August 3rd, 2007

  • Book Rating: 5/5

I LOVED this book and I hated for it to end. It was a fabulous combination of an historical novel and a character study. The dearth and variety of characters and the depth to which each character was presented held one's interest throughout the book. Every chapter could have won an award. Exceptional writing. WONDERFUL book. I've seen that it's also a huge book, and although it would have taken a long time to read, I wished I could have continued listening to it for a couple more generations of characters! And finally, the reader was an expert; never was there any doubt about which character was speaking.

Author Details

Author Details

Eugenides, Jeffrey

Jeffrey Eugenides was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1960. He graduated magna cum laude from Brown University, and received an M.A. in English and Creative Writing from Stanford University in 1986. His first novel, The Virgin Suicides, was published to acclaim in 1993. It has been translated into fifteen languages and made into a feature film. His fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Yale Review, Best American Short Stories, The Gettysburg Review, and Granta's "Best of Young American Novelists." In 2003, Jeffrey Eugenides received The Pulitzer Prize for his novel Middlesex (2002).

Eugenides is the recipient of many awards, including fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, a Whiting Writers' Award, and the Henry D. Vursell Memorial Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In the past few years he has been a Fellow of the Berliner Künstlerprogramm of the DAAD and of the American Academy in Berlin. After spending some time in Berlin, Eugenides now lives in Chicago with his wife and daughter where he is on the faculty of Princeton University's Program in Creative Writing. In January 2008 he published an anthology, My Mistress's Sparrow Is Dead: Great Love Stories from Chekhov to Munro, the proceeds of which will go directly to fund the free youth writing programs offered by 826 Chicago which is part of the network of seven writing centers across the United States affiliated with 826 National, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write.